Isolation
by Nic the Saint
Summary: He sleeps in the middle of the bed. He dreams about her every night. Her last words to him were, "I'll always be with you, no matter what." Even after what she said to him as the life went from her eyes, what he felt was true isolation. AU


_**To be honest, I really didn't like how this turned out. But review, and please tell me what you think. It's gonna be a two-shot, maybe three. Please, bear with me.**_

_**But here you go, I hope you enjoy this. **_

_**-Insert standard disclaimer here-**_

* * *

_Alone_.

Never again will he see the smile she always gave him, even though he remembers that smile as if he saw it yesterday. Never again will he be able to embrace her and stroke her hair when she was sad. Never again will he be able to touch her soft skin.

He loved her with all of his heart. He loved the way she laughed. He loved the way she would use her authoritative voice whenever she was upset with him. He loved the way she walked, the way she talked, the way she loved him unconditionally. Her radiance was gone, and he felt like he was spiraling in darkness.

The man turns his head, takes a look out of his window, and sees the city of Konoha, filled to the brim with life, even on a rainy day. After looking for a while, the man decides that he would take a walk around town and see the sights.

As he stares out the window seeing the glum rain clouds, the man let a single tear slide down his face. The man turns his head to look at his clock on the nightstand. _6:23_, it read. After lying in bed for a little while longer, he wipes away the tear and begrudgingly drags himself out of bed to the bathroom, where the shower awaits his arrival.

He slowly undresses himself while the water runs. He waits until it turns hot enough for him, and steps in. After five minutes of standing and letting the hot water hit his back in a rain-like fashion, he started to wash himself. Fifteen minutes pass, and he steps out and brush his teeth and wash his face. With that done, the man puts on a pair of dark denim jeans and a black t-shirt, covered by a black hoodie. He takes one last look in the mirror, and realizes that his face looks older than he really is. He has bags under his eyes and the area around his eyes wrinkles deeply whenever he blinks. His cheeks sink in, instead of being at their regular plumpness. Staring deeper into his reflection, he thinks of one word: stress.

The man does not want to waste any more time looking at himself, so he grabbed his keys and umbrella, and leave the house.

xxxxx

While the man walks around the town, he comes across his best friend's favorite eatery: Ichiraku.

He looks inside and sees his best friend sitting at the bar, stuffing his face with miso ramen. The man is not surprised. A ghost of a smirk appears on his face as he takes a seat by his friend. The friend seems to notice his presence instantly.

"Sasuke! I haven't seen you in a while! How have you been?" The friend says excitedly as he claps the man named Sasuke on his back.

"I've been doing okay. How are you and Hinata?" Sasuke replies after he orders a miso ramen.

"We're doing just fine! I wanted to tell you something, but I didn't call because something told me you were going to end up here today. But guess what?" The friend says. Sasuke can see the excitement in his eyes. He had a good guess of what it was, but he was going to play along, not wanting to spoil it for his friend.

"What is it, Naruto?"

The friend, whose name is Naruto, quickly swallow the ramen in his mouth and says, "Hinata is pregnant! Do you know what this means? I'm going to be a father." He pauses. "This means that you can be Uncle Sasuke! Your daughter can finally have a 'younger sibling'. We are going to be one big, happy family! What do you think, Sasuke?"

Sasuke pauses. At that moment, his order of miso ramen is set in front of him.

In truth, he liked the idea. A lot, actually. However, it also brought him pain, because his late wife would have been...

Naruto notices Sasuke's hesitation. He gets concerned. "Uh, Sasuke, you okay bud?"

"Sakura." Sasuke suddenly blurts out. "She would have loved the idea of being Auntie Sakura. Don't you think she would have?" Naruto gives a small smile.

"Yeah, she would have loved the idea."

Sasuke pats his friend on the back while giving his friend a very small, but genuine, smile and says, "I'm very happy for the both of you."

Naruto's grin widens. "Thanks, teme."

"Anytime, dobe."

They eat in silence.

xxxxx

_Riiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiii-_

"Hullo?"

"Good morning, Sasuke-darling!" Oh, Sakura's mother does call to check up on him from time to time. She wants to make sure that he is okay and that he is in a good state of mind.

"Good morning, Mrs. Haruno."

"Oh, did I wake you? I'm sorry! I'll let you sleep then!"

"No, it's fine. I need to get up anyway." He turns to look at his clock on the night stand. It read _8:08_.

"Oh, well alright then. I wanted to check up on you, y'know. To see how you're doing."

Sasuke sits up in his bed and rubs his eyes tiredly. "I'm... dealing with it, still. I'm getting better, though. Thank you for asking."

The woman laughs lightly and says, "Good! I just wanted to make sure." Slight pause. "I was wondering if you would like to come over for dinner Friday? My husband and I would love to have you!"

He glances around and gets out of bed. Then he realizes that today was Tuesday. "That would be nice. What time do you want me over?"

He could just hear the woman smile through the phone. "Oh, around seven or so. Dinner should be done by then."

"Alright, then. See you Friday."

"Alrighty, Sasuke dear! Bye bye, now!"

She hangs up.

xxxxx

Eating with Naruto had been rather nice, Sasuke admits to himself. He felt a strong wave of nostalgia when he first stepped into Ichiraku.

After a brotherly hug and a few more encouraging words, the two paid for their meals and went their separate ways for the day. Sasuke asked that Naruto passed his regards to Hinata, and Naruto said that he would.

Sasuke walks towards his closet and pulls out a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. Despite the weather yesterday, he still felt like wearing a hoodie. But quickly decides against it, being that it was about 89 degrees outside. He hops in the shower and stays in for only 10 minutes. Today, he decides to wash his hair with his late wife's favorite shampoo: cherry blossom.

He says to himself that he'll let his feet take him wherever they will, instead of trying to think of a place to go. Sasuke decides that he's going to try to be happier today. If not for himself, then for his Sakura. She would want that for him. He dresses himself as he thinks of his late wife.

After he is done, Sasuke looked out the window in his living room. Even though it poured down rain the previous day, a bright rainbow shined itself across the sky. He gave a genuine smile as he looked skyward.

Grabbing his keys, he turns every light out and walks out the door.

* * *

_**Please leave a review for me. I want to get better at this, and the (constructive) criticism is needed. If you flame me… well, I really don't care. I'll probably just laugh at it. **_

_**Bye-bye.**_


End file.
